Sisterhood of the Blogging Stampers (SBS4)

So, what's a girl to do when she's craving a smaller stamping community? When she wants to have a group of regular blogs to visit and have those people visit hers? Well, she joins a group from the Sisterhood of the Blogging Stampers!

What is it? Well, it's a group of 30 stampers who have blogs. We agree to visit each others blogs on a weekly basis and leave comments. It's a fun way to get to know each other. I've found blogs on here that I've never seen before (and I thought that was impossible! ;-) ) This weekend I will be posting all my SBS4 Sisters Blogs over on the right side of my blog...so go visit them once I get them posted. They have some awesome stuff!

Now I'm supposed to share a little about me. I'm Jane, mom to 2 girls in heaven and 2 boys on earth (ages 7 and 10). I've been married for 16 years (17 years as of 12/29). I've been scrapping for 10 years (my grief counselor got me started when she told me to create a memory album for my daughters...boy did SHE open a huge can of worms!). I started stamping about 6 years ago. I'm on an Idea Team for an online stamp company and I'm on the Design Team at a local scrapbook store. I've been published in multiple issues of The RubberStamper and Stampers Sampler. I was a SAHM for 10 years but returned to working this year. So now I have far less time to stamp and scrap. I like all companies and all types of stamps. In general I'd say my style is simple yet elegant. I don't like a lot of patterns mixed or too much embellishment.

Anyways, that's enough about me. Look forward to getting to know you all!

Jane

Kool Aid Card Tutorial

I originally saw these cards on SCS but they were using tea bags. I don't know ANYONE who drinks tea. So I decided to modify the card and make it a kool aid card. With a little more modification you could even do packets of hot cocoa or maybe soup mix (for a get well card).

Also, as a disclaimer...in the future I think I'd make my measurements a little bigger. I measured my kool aid packet and then made the card slightly bigger. But once I added the adhesive to the pocket portion...the pocket was too small! So I had to fold in the one side and bottom to make it look right in the card. It still works but would be good to make it a little bigger next time.

Ok...I started by cutting my cardstock to 4 1/4 x 9 inches. I then scored at 3 inches and again at 6 inches. On the far right panel I used my paper trimmer and cut off a portion of the top at an angle.



Next I adhered red sticky tape to the bottom and right side of the right panel (the one that you cut at an angle). Remove the liner from the tape and fold over to make a pocket.



Your basic card is finished! Now decorate the front however you want....here I used one of the $1 stamps from Clear Dollar Stamps. I colored in the popscicles using an orange marker and then used clear stickles on each so they shimmer. For the saying I downloaded a font off the good old internet and printed the saying on cardstock.



And now the total project from the top view so you can see it all...



How cool would these be for aides at the kids' schools? "Thanks for being a great aide!" could be your saying.

Thanks for stopping by! I've been in the mood to do some holiday "blog candy" so make sure you come back by this weekend. I'll plan on posting it on Saturday morning and you'll have till Sunday night to enter.

Jane

Calendars (May and June)

I'm continuing work on my calendars for Christmas presents. I'm doing a little here and there so it's taking me longer than if I just sat and did the 12 3x3 squares (but then again I'm making 4 of them...so that's really 48 little squares!)

I decided for May that it needed to be a rose ('cause of Mother's Day of course). All stamps are from SU. Here's May...





And for June I thought a little summer time at the beach was in order. So, for this I used my Gina K crab and the sentiment is from Memory Box (and the speckles is an old CTMH stamp).





I'm half way there! LOL. I'm going to be sick of these calendars by the time I'm done with them. Have you noticed they are getting more and more simple the further I go? In the beginning they had stitching and embellishing...now they are just stamping?

Have a great day.

Jane

Paper Piecing Card

I found an old techniques challenge on SCS to do paper piecing (something I rarely do) and decided to take the challenge. I love, love, LOVE this card in real life. But I can't get a good picture of it to save my life. So forgive the photos and love the card. :-)

To do paper piecing you basically stamp your image on white cardstock...then stamp again on patterned paper. You cut out the patterned paper and adhere over the white stamped image. Usually you see this more with stamps where people are wearing clothing (like a dress they then use patterned paper for). I went outside the box and did a floral image. The image is from TAC and is called Oopsie Daisy. I stamped my image four times total (once on white, once on blue patterned, once on green patterned and once on yellow patterned). I cut out all the colored pieces and adhered to the white one. I also added a black brad to the center of my flower. The blue flowered paper is SU paper (a gift from a friend...thanks Concetta!). Other papers are from a DCWV stack.



And here are a couple close ups of the flower image...




Enjoy. I'm off to get ready for work.

Jane

Dear Santa...

I made this card using sketch challenge # 152 over on SCS. Here's the sketch...



And here's my take on the card. I flipped the card (to be horizontal not vertical) and switched the side that my main image was on (felt like the santa needed to be looking off the card). The rest stays true to the sketch.



The Santa stamp is from Victorine's Originals. The rest is all patterned paper from a slab I got at Joann's. I faux stitched around all the parts and used a silver gel pen to connect the dots...then added a solid silver line around the outside of the card...and a silver cord at the top to finish it off.

And now to write my letter to Santa...

Dear Santa,

I've been a VERY good girl this year. (Well, unless you ask my hubby and he'll say I've been a very BAD girl...but in his mind that translates to a good girl! LOL!) If you find room in your sleigh, here are a few things I'd really like to have!

1) Bind-it-All
2) Crop-o-dile
3) Large set of Prismacolor pencils As an FYI Santa...the set of 120 can usually be found on ebay for around $50
4) This set and this set from Clear Dollar Stamps
5) The nugget tins from PaperTrey Ink are sold out right now...but I'll take a rain check or a late Christmas gift! They are near the bottom of the page. I wouldn't mind some of the small see through tins either. I'm envisioning these filled with red hot candies for Valentine's Day!
6) Giga scallopped circle punch.
7) Gina K stamps! In particular I like this one and this one and if you bring the giga scalloped circle punch then I'd love to have this set to go with it.
8) I'd love a stand alone little photo printer like this one.
9) Any Amuse stamps (don't own any but love them all!)
10) And of course the basics that I use every day...Mono Adhesive Permanent Refills, Refills for my ATG gun, pop dot adhesives, mini glue dots, fiskars refill blades (regular...not triple track), ribbon, patterned paper stacks, etc, etc. I'm really pretty easy to please!

Thanks Santa!

Jane

Ask My Mom How She Is (poem)

It's been ten years since my daughters passed away. The pain is much less than it used to be. But still, when I saw this poem it touched me and I wanted to share it on my blog. I don't know who authored it. If you happen to know...tell me and I'll give them all the credit they deserve! Jane


Ask My Mom How She Is
by (unknown)

My Mom, she tells a lot of lies,
She never did before
But from now until she dies,
She'll tell a whole lot more.

Ask my Mom how she is
And because she can't explain,
She will tell a little lie
because she can't describe the pain.

Ask my Mom how she is,
She'll say "I'm alright."
If that's the truth, then tell me,
why does she cry each night ?

Ask my Mom how she is
She seems to cope so well,
She didn't have a choice you see,
Nor the strength to yell.

Ask my Mom how she is,
"I'm fine, I'm well, I'm coping."
For God's sake Mom, just tell the truth,
Just say your heart is broken.

She'll love me all her life
I loved her all of mine.
But if you ask her how she is,
She'll lie and say she's fine.

I am here in Heaven
I cannot hug from here.
If she lies to you don't listen
Hug her and hold her near.

On the day we meet again,
We'll smile and I'll be bold.
I'll say,
"You're lucky to get in here, Mom,
With all the lies you told!"

Who would have thought MICE could be sweet?

I love all the House Mouse stamps. I'm slowly accruing quite a collection. I can't afford to pay new price - so I either get them on ebay or on the buy/sell/trade forum on Splitcoaststampers.

This is one of the "new used" stamps I'd purchased probably a couple months ago and hadn't had a chance to play with yet. So when I went stamping with my friend Concetta I took my new stamps to play with. This is the card I came up with.



The bad thing about these images is that they are really large (usually) so they don't leave a lot of room for embellishing or layering. But I think this still came out with a nice little pizzazz to it. The word stamp is from Stampin' Up. Lots of pen stitching and a couple of brads and the card is finished! It's colored with chalks (my only choice for the mice...I've tried watercolors and colored pencils but chalks are my favorite for them).

I got paid yesterday and it was a 3rd paycheck for the month so they didn't take benefits out of it. I decided I deserved a small purchase. And I'd gotten an email from Hambo Stampsthat they were having a sale for the first of December and I don't own ANY of their stamps (which is a sin!) So I placed an order - originally it was for 6 unmounted stamps. But they emailed me this morning and one of the images is out of stock (and two of the sayings went with that image). So now I'm settling for three new stamps instead. I love their sense of humor and their images are pretty cute.

I need to start working on Christmas gifts. I am probably making notecard sets for the teachers (since I bought a Roadrunner stamp for that purpose a while back and haven't used it yet). I'm still working on the calendars. I'm not sure what I'm doing for the folks at work. I want to buy something little for them (like a coffee mug or maybe a decorated candy bar...nothing over $5 each). I bought hubby a small gift but would like to add a few things to it. I need to even out the gifts for the kids (mainly need some sort of a game for the older one...a PSP or PS2 game). I think they are pretty even other than that. I also need to work on getting Christmas cards ready to mail and write a newsletter for the year. Due to a dead battery in my Palm and a subsequent crash of our harddrive...I don't think I have ANY addresses. So this year the only people who are getting cards are ones that mail one to me first.

Well, rambling away here. I'll talk to ya'll tomorrow!

Jane